sweet home colorado: November STUFF!

This month is flying by! We have been really busy, too busy. It has been super fun, but we are all exhausted and spending today lounging around and napping, which is much needed! Here are a bunch of randoms from our month so far...

We went to Uncle Brad's last Arapahoe football game. It was beautiful but freezing! The boys were awesome and had such a fun time running around, eating, climbing the bleachers, and cheering on Uncle Brad's team.

The rest of us huddled together to stay warm!

We've hosted a few get togethers at our house lately.

For our Supper Club last weekend I made brownies with a layer of Halloween candy bars at the bottom. They were gooey and delicious!

Here we are trying to do "The Ring Test" to determine the gender of the newest Leensvaart baby. I don't think we could get a good read. First it said GIRL, but then it said BOY!

Since we couldn't get a good read on the Mommy, Mark decided to see what "The Ring Test" would say on the Daddy! Ha! Whatever the gender, we CAN NOT WAIT, to love on this new Leensvaart baby!

After a taco salad dinner, us adults decided to have some fun on the wii...

Kim breaking it down on Glee Karaoke!

Then the boys got in on the action!

A little Van Eps duet...

and one from the Krauths too! "I've had the time of my life!"

After singing, we moved on to a little "Just Dance".

"It's Raining Men!" Oh these two boys! They crack me up! We are so thankful for these life long friendships and we LOVE that now our kids are all growing up together as well.

Speaking of life long friendships...

My good high school friend Don and his beautiful wife Jocelyn were in Colorado for the weekend. We got the chance to spend the day with them last Sunday. They came over to see our house and our boys. Then we dropped the boys off at Brad & Jaynes for the afternoon {thanks guys} so that we could enjoy some time with our friends.

It was a beautiful day! We ate lunch outside on the deck at Brothers and enjoyed the mountain views and good conversation. Then we headed to do a little hiking around at Garden of the Gods.

I always say that I know that if we lived closer to Don & Jocelyn, that Joc would be one of my closest girlfriends. She is so fun and sweet and stylish and she loves to be crafty & creative. If only we lived closer! I always really enjoy my time with these two!

The sky and rocks were just beautiful!

I think the guys had a fun time together too!

It was also nice to have some time with Mark without our ~~pesky~~, I mean adorable, children around!

Nolan had to complete his first, big, school project this week.

He had to create a personal timeline. He had to include 5 photos, one from each year of his life- from birth until now. We had fun looking through old photo albums and he chose all the pictures himself. He had the hardest time choosing a photo for age 5. He couldn't decide between a soccer pic and one from Cancun. But in the end, he decided he liked his face in the beach picture! He would smile from ear to ear when the waves crashed on him! After picking out the pictures, he sat right down and got to writing. He did an excellent job labeling each picture! He loves doing homework! And so does his teacher-mommy! His project was due this week, but next week he will have to do an oral presentation of it. So we practiced reading it, describing each picture, and answering questions about it. He did a great job! I wish that I could be a fly on the wall of his classroom to see how he does when he presents it to his class! Somedays I just can't believe how old he is now! It's crazy that he is almost 6!

Yesterday we hosted my Women's Group Family Night! We did this last fall as well, and it is always so fun to get all of our husbands, significant others, and children all together. This year we decided to do a Chili Cook Off!

I made the "Chili Mac Daddy". Kim made the chili on the right- it had chocolate in it!

"Haz-Nat" was made by Natalie. "Hot Stuff" was made by Heather.

And the "More Differenter Chili" was made by Jenn. We also had corn bread and cheesy muffins and countless possible chili toppers! After everyone ate, we voted for our favorite chili, you just couldn't vote for your own! Kim's Chocolate Chili was the big WINNER! It was tasty and unique and came out with the win!

After dinner we put some kids down to sleep and put a movie on for the others. Then we played this game- "Wits and Wagers". I had never played it before and it was really fun! We laughed a lot! Jenn, Jeremy, and I won the first round by a landslide. Winning always makes it that much more fun! Ha! And the second round was taken by Sarah and Kim!

While playing we munched on Sarah's delicious desserts! Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bars and Oreo Balls! Yum!

Natalie is such a fun playmate!

And before we said our goodbyes we had to snap a WG photo! We were just missing Rachel and her family. We missed her for sure. I am so thankful for these ladies- their friendship, love, accountability, challenging, support, prayers, and laughs! We have been through so much together over the past 10 years and through all of life's ups and downs we have committed to doing life together. Girlfriends are one of God's greatest gifts to me. (From top to bottom L to R: Jenn, Kim, Natalie, Abby, Sarah, Heather)

And of course, the boys had to get in on the action as well. I missed the photo op, but at one point- all 5 boys were sitting on top of each other! So sad to have missed that pic!